XBOX Future & DVD-ROM EMULATOR?

XBOX Future & DVD-ROM EMULATOR?

Seeing as how the original XBOX scene seems to have died upon the advent of the 360, I'm begging to worry that my favorite video game juke box has reached the end of it's life span. Sure there are a couple of home brew releases a year, but other than that the scene seems to have died.

Regardless, I know there is my self and a few others that either use these as multi-media juke boxes, as servers, etc. And it sounds like the free Windows clone (ReactOS) is still being developed for the hardware, so now I am wondering if there has been any work what so ever to take care of the faulty DVD-ROM issue.

I and the many people who I know with XBOX's have went through so many DVD roms it ain't funny. I was wondering if there was an adapter that allows you to use a PC DVD-ROM which still enables you to read XBOX DVD's, or better yet, if there was a project like that which has recently surfaced in the Wii, which tricks the hardware into thinking that it's loading DVD's when in fact it's actually loading ISO's off a hard drive.

I recommend converting the PC Samsung drive to an xbox drive so that you can temporarily use it in a bum xbox to soft mod it, then TSOP flash it. Once done and XBMC is installed, just FTP your games to it. Rip your games to your hard drive using a Kreon drive.

I have a SD-616T converted over to a SDG-605B. It comes in handy every once in while when I get a hold of a dead drive box.

Correct. What was stated in my last post was a stock Samsung drive flashed into a xbox drive. but it involves resoldering the eject motor into reverse polarity and directly soldering the DVD power/ready cable for the xbox to the PC DVD drive's drive board.

Right off the top of my head I don't know the other brand and model that can be converted to it's xbox counterpart. But it is do-able.

But with expense and everything, you might as well scour ebay for a working drive for that box as finding a SD-616T or SD-616F will prove difficult and probably expensive at this stage in the game.

It's possible to connect a normal PC DVD-drive to your xbox.
This is very usefull if your xbox has a bad laser. A pc DVD-drive will not only give better results for DVD-r/rw , but also for CD-r/rw.
A pc DVD-drive will play pretty much all brands and load times will be shorter then when using the official Xbox DVD-drive.

What you need ?

A pc DVD-drive
A normal PC powersplitter (4 Pin Power Connector for 5.25 Drive , like used in normal PCs)
An original xbox game (depends on dvddrive)
A modded xbox console

The Installation

Put your PC DVD-drive in slave-mode.
Open the top of your xbox.
Leave the Xbox DVD-drive in its slot. (you can NOT just replace the drive , in order to make this work you will need both drives).
Put the PC DVD-drive on top of the Xbox DVD-drive.
Disconnect the IDE cable on the Xbox DVD-drive and connect it to the PC DVD-drive.
Leave the 8wire yellow cable on the Xbox DVD-drive.
Disconnect the Xbox HDD Powercable and connect the power-splitter on it. Now connect one end of the splitter back to the Xbox HDD and the other end to the PC DVD-drive.

Your xbox is now ready to read CD-RW/R and DVD-R/RW from the PC DVD-drive.

How to boot games ?
The are 2 method to boot games with a pc-dvddrive. I can't say which one will work with your drive , so just try them both.

METHOD1
Insert nothing in the xbox-drive.
Open the PC drive and insert disc.
Close the PC drive.
Reset Xbox. (reset button or "reboot xbox" in EvoX).
Game should launch , if not , try METHOD2.

METHOD2
Eject the xbox drive (<-- Xbox drive!!)
Insert the CD-r/rw or DVD-r/rw disc in the PC drive (<-- PC drive !!)
Close the xbox drive with an original xbox game inside. (<-- Xbox drive!!)

For DVDmovies you can do exactly the same.

NOTE:
1/ You can NOT play original discs this way , you will have to reconnect the IDE-cable to the Xbox DVD-drive if you want to play an original games.
2/ You will have to keep your xbox open. Make sure you protect it from dust.
3/ It's unsure if this tricks works with ALL PC DVD-drives. It has been successfully tested with LG8160B , Pioneer DVD- 105SZ , PIONEER DVD-106S , lite on 16x & SD-M1612 tosiba.